Hundreds of residents of Italy’s Vulcano island have been told to evacuate from their homes every night for the next month over concerns about potentially lethal gases emitted from the La Fossa volcano crater.
The measure is in effect starting Monday and requires that people vacate their houses between 11pm to 6am local time because of the volcanic activity nearby. Tourists are also prohibited from the island by Mayor Marco Giorgianni as a security precaution.
Explaining the drastic measures, Giorgianni said they’re necessary as “the unconsciousness of sleep would not allow them to detect the risks.”
Autoriteiten op #Vulcano ????, één van de Eolische eilanden ten noorden van Sicilië, maken zich zorgen. Inwoners van Vulcano Porte, de belangrijkste stad op het eiland, staan gereed voor evacuatie. De vulkaan is al paar maanden onrustig. Dat lijkt toe te nemen. Zie dit draadje. ⇩ https://t.co/Jlh17B08mkpic.twitter.com/1L6mXHNqwh
— Sam (@samgerrits) November 22, 2021
Vulcano is part of Aeolian archipelago and will prohibit tourism in the following month. These moves are made one month after civil protection agencies updated the alert level. “significant,” and just days after Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology warned of “abnormally high”Carbon dioxide levels at the volcanic calder.
Officials also declared the island in crisis, and took protective measures for any possible increase in volcanic activity.
A volcano’s gas release could lead to oxygen levels dropping on the island. This can potentially cause fatal breathing problems. According to ANSA volcanologists, the carbon dioxide level has risen to approximately 480 tonnes from its normal 80 tonnes. The island – its name a combination of ‘volcano’ and ‘Vulcan’, the Roman god of fire – has experienced frequent eruptions throughout history, most recently from 1888 to 1890.
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